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Monday, April 18, 2011

Three unrelated advertisements (Michaud's, Duz and Q*bert)

Here are a trio of unrelated American newspaper and magazine advertisements spanning the decades...

Pictured above is an advertisement from a late October 1935 edition of the St. Paul (Minn.) Dispatch. It's for Michaud's, a food market that is probably worthy of its own post. (But that will have to wait for another day.) They're pushing the Halloween candy and the fresh meat aggressively in this advertisement. I'm really interested in the reference to Bunte Halloween Rarebits, a candy that is a pricey 43 cents per pound. We'll have to chalk that one up as a Mystery for now and explore it more someday, too. All of these food prices of 76 years ago are a wonder, though.

This advertisement for Duz laundry detergent is from an early 1950s magazine. (Probably Woman's Day, if I had to guess.) Laundry detergent advertising buzzwords and catchphrases haven't changed much in the past half-century. The emphasis remains on toughest dirt, softer, smoother and dazzling whites. You don't see phrases like this much anymore, though: "Duz does it! ... by giving your hands almost toilet-soap mildness!"

And finally, here's an advertisement for the Q*bert video game from the December 1983 issue of Woman's Day. It states: "So hop Q*bert out of the arcade and into your home, because Parker Brothers' family wants your family to have a fun holiday season and a Hoppy New Year." The home version of Q*bert is offered for the Atari, Intellivision, Coleco and Commodore video game and computer systems. (Speaking of arcade and video games, I stumbled upon this fascinating -- in a geeky way -- article titled "Understanding Pac-Man Ghost Behavior" last week. For some of you, it might be a fun read.)

Chris, that Michaud's ad was for a grocery store that would've been very close to where my dad grew up (he would've been a week shy of 15 at the time). Thanks for sharing this - if only I could ask him about it. :)

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About the Author

I'm Chris Otto, a Pennsylvania resident and journalist whose hobbies and interests include old books, ephemera, history, folklore, alpacas, photography and much more. Never stop reading, learning and asking questions! I consider this blog to be a spiritual descendant of Microsoft Encarta and a companion to Wikipedia. Every piece of paper tells a story.
Reach me at chrisottopa (at) gmail.com.

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Papergreat was mentioned in Stephanie Clifford's August 7, 2011, article in The New York Times titled "Shopper Receipts Join Paperless Age." Find out why, years ago, I held onto a receipt for a hot dog!

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